In the Grass

Today was a fine day for insects in the grass. I couldn't resist posting this one right away. I call it "Mothra".

Garden Pics

I shot a few more garden pics today (see below) and added them to the Picasa Album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/MinnesotaGardenInMidJune02#.

A dragonfly was particularly photogenic and cooperative. The patterning of the wing veins and their shadow on the leaf below is striking.


Also in the insect theme is this pretty bug seen with eggs on the Columbine seedhead. It is probably some devasting pest, but quite pretty. In the Picasa album, you can see that this one of a mating pair.

Delightful Friday Evening and Congratulations to Tony

Last night after work I went to a delightful dinner hosted by a friend to celebrate a very prestigious award that he received. Antonino, Tony to his friends, and his charming wife Samantha arranged for the dinner for 15 people to be held at a very posh shop (Sopra Sotto) that sells fancy Italian tableware, stemware, etc. The fun part was that the dinner was really a cooking lesson from an Italian chef, Antonio Cecconi, who is based in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St Paul for those of you not familiar with Minnesota). The evening was marvelous with especially selected wines to accompany the dinner courses. We started with a capresse salad served on a piece of cracker bread that had been drizzled with extra virgin olive oil; so simple and so simply alive with taste. As we ate the salad, Antonio told us about cooking in various regions of Italy. I can’t remember the exact order of all that followed (the wine was very good -- ;-)), but as the evening progressed we watched and learned how to make a fresh dressing for a green salad (the key is absolutely fresh herbs) and a marinade for fresh fish. We watched Antonio make linguine from scratch by hand using durum wheat flour, eggs, and a little water. The nice thing about watching someone who knows how to cook and knows how to teach is all the little hints that can make such a difference, like taking a small handful (1 serving) of linguine to form a little nest that can be frozen and used later just like fresh made pasta. Somehow the thought of making pasta from scratch is no longer as intimidating as it once was. Antonio also made an amazing sauce for the linguine using halved cherry tomatoes, garlic, fresh herbs. To this he added shrimp and jumbo fresh scallops. Once the scallops were nearly done, he added fresh tomato sauce and then let the flavors meld for a bit before pouring the entire pan of sauce over the huge serving bowl nearly filled with the fresh cooked linguine. At the same time the tuna and swordfish steaks, which had been marinating for a while, were placed in the sauté pan and cooked to just barely done before being served up alongside the pasta. Oh wait -- I forgot about the most marvelous mussels! The mussels were cooked in wine and served on another kind of wafer thin bread. The trick he showed us with mussels is that you can break apart the 2 shells and use one to scoop out the mussel from the other half and deliver it safely to your mouth. You can also scoop up some of the sauce with the shell. Then the bread below has soaked up the remaining sauce so you can savor every last drop by eating the bread. We ate the mussels after the capresse salad and before the spinach salad. At some point during the preparations and the eating, Antonio showed us a large platter of luscious strawberries that had been cored earlier. To the platter he added a very generous amount of Marsala wine so the berries could soak as we finished the main courses. For dessert, Antonio made a Zabaione sauce to pour over the Marsala-marinated strawberries. And Samantha had prepared lemoncello to accompany the dessert. All of this, along with interesting conversation, good company, surrounded by the lovely shop items made for a delightful and memorable evening. So - congratulations to you, Tony! And thank you for letting me join in the celebration.

Inspired by Antonio’s cooking, Dennis and I decided to try a recipe from his cookbook – polenta with sautéed spinach and pine nuts. We put a Belize spin on it, though. A number of years ago when visiting Tortola, BVI, we had a similar dish of polenta with local greens. They call the polenta "funghi" in the BVI. I had bought a bunch of fresh greens at the Thursday Street Fair Market in downtown Rochester. It looked to me like the greens were amaranth, although the Asian vendor didn’t know what it was called in English. In Belize you can grow amaranth, although there it is called callaloo. He did assure me that Americans do not like it, and he mostly sells it to Asians and Europeans. The massive bunch was $1.00. I also got a large bunch of what he called Thai bok choy. So we used those instead of the spinach and used toasted sesame seeds and sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts. Otherwise, we followed the recipe pretty closely (didn’t have quite enough basil on hand). We paired it with a nice red wine from Tuscany, and it was a delicious meal. I foolishly forgot to take pictures of it, so you will have to take my word for how nicely the dark green amaranth set off the golden polenta. We can add this to our growing repertoire of dishes we will be able to adapt to ingredients easily available in Belize.

Earlier in the day, I took more photos of our garden. Here is a montage of some of them. I added them to the album you can see at http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/MinnesotaGardenInMidJune02#

A little excitment

We have been having some severe weather for the past few days here in the upper Midwest of the US. A couple of evenings ago, we were under a tornado warning in Rochester for quite a few hours. And 35 miles to the south of us a tornado struck the town Austin (famous for being the home of Spam canned meats!). It did considerable damage, but fortunately there was not loss of life. Here are some photos of the damage that were in the newspaper.


The other excitement was the Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton concert that Dennis and I went to in St. Paul last night. That was a fantastic experience. They played together for the entire concert except for a “solo” that each did. Steve’s voice is still super and their guitar skills remain a site to behold and a sound to savor. Our seats were in the stratosphere; we were in the absolute highest row, right up there with the hockey banners. Here are a couple of photos I took with my cell phone that give you an idea of how high we were. The good thing for us was that they had 2 massive rear projection screens so we could actually see what was happening. These and a couple of other cell phone photos can be seen on my Picasa album page: http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/WinwoodClaptonInConcert#

Sunny thoughts on a Dreary Day

It has been a very cool, wet, dreary, and just generally miserable day. To remind myself that the best of summer in MN is yet to come, I revisited some photos I took of our summer garden last July. The 3 wild turkey hens were visiting with their shared broods of 11 chicks, butterflies were swarming the aesclepias, insects were everywhere, and the Jack-in-the-Pulpit had gone to seed. Below are a couple of my favorites and here is a link to the album on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/MNWildlife#

Colorado, then Georgia

Yesterday, I wrote about our trip to Colorado to go to the Dead concert and to visit some of my family. While we were at my sister’s new place in the wilds of the CO mountains, Dennis particularly wanted to get the details on their solar panel installation, the battery bank, and the inverter for the house current. I had mentioned that they are totally off the grid, just like we are in Belize. But they are able to go a little more high tech than we are. Their house is poured concrete and their south facing window wall is a passive solar collector. This window wall lets sunlight fall on the concrete floor, which is stained a gorgeous deep swirly reddish chestnut color, collect heat and transfer it to the water pipes embedded in the concrete. Then they have a recirculator that pumps the water around so that the shaded floor can be warmed. Very cool system. And their Outback inverter is much more sophisticated than what we have in Belize. We may go with a system similar to theirs when we upgrade to mostly solar after we move to Belize permanently. Right now, we use a diesel generator to charge our battery bank, which is considerably smaller than theirs is. They have a propane generator as a backup to solar. Eventually our diesel will be the backup instead of the primary, but we are not there yet.

We did a lot of hiking while we were there. It was nice and sunny, but the wind was fierce. You can see some of the photos I took if you open my Colorado Mountains album on Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/ColoradoMountainsNearFtCollins#). But here are a few of my favorites.



On Saturday, my nephew, his wife, and their 2 terrific children came for the day. We went hiking to one of their favorite places that they have named “Crystal Mountain”. Crystal Mountain is a huge outcropping of stone that is loaded with quartz crystals. Some of them look like geodes and some are loose faceted obelisks that are clear. Very pretty and loads of fun to search for. We had a picnic lunch there. On our hike back to the house we saw coyote scat with fur and little tiny bones, a mysterious lone little speckled egg in the grass, loads of grasshoppers, and tiny little flowers almost hidden in the grass. It was a great day.

Dennis and I flew back to MN and then almost immediately left for a trip to Georgia. I gave a talk at a conference in Athens, where Dennis and I had lived for many years. We got caught up with old friends while we were there. After that we spent the weekend with my mother, who lives nearby. We spent part of a day with her at a state park in the foothills, Victoria Bryant State Park. Here are links to 2 Picasa albums from that trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/VictoriaBryantStateParkGA#
http://picasaweb.google.com/lulalaney/WaterLightReflectionShadow#
And below are some of my favorites.

Colorado in May

Back in May, Dennis and I went to Colorado for a loooong weekend. Our first stop was Denver to go to the (Grateful) Dead concert. Which was beyond fantastic, btw. Dennis had found a nice package deal for hotel with bus transport to and from the concert. The hotel was the newly remodeled Sheraton in downtown Denver. We flew in early enough to check into the hotel, get our wrist bands for the bus and tickets, and get settled in our room on the 19th floor (fantastic veiw of the city and mountains). We still had time to enjoy a nice glass of wine or two along with some bar food, and the weather was nice enough to be on the patio of the bar. The concert was in the Pepsi Center, which doubles as a hockey arena. Our seats were where the hockey penalty box is during games. The Dead were really at the top of their form, musically. I took these photos with my cell phone held above my head, so forgive their shakiness.

The next day we drove to Ft Collins to meet up with my sister and her husband, who were headed from Lousianna for a short stay at their soon-to-be retirement home in the CO mountains. After getting provisioned (food, wine, etc), the four of us were joined by my nephew and his wife, who live in Ft Collins, for lunch. They went back to work after lunch, but the rest of us drove into the mountains for the weekend. My sister's place is on a property easement next to Nature Conservancy wilderness. It is sort of the mountain version of our tropical place in Belize; totally off the grid, takes some effort to get to, surrounded by incredible natural beauty. The layout of their house is even similar to our cabana, with the entire front being one long room with the front wall entirely windows (in our case the room is the veranda and the windows are only screen) overlooking a spectacular view. Both houses are open with the only interior doors being bathroom doors. Each of us had bought our properties at about the same time and designed our house/cabana at the same without knowing the details of the other party. Either great minds think alike, or my sister and I inherited the same crazy gene for living at the edge, or both. ;-) Come to think of it, my brother and other sister have similar tendencies to take the path less traveled.

Later today or tomorrow I will post some photos that I took at their place. Right now I am going to enjoy some of the fabulous early summer weather here in southeastern MN.

Earthquake

In my last blog posting, I had gotten to the part where we had found and bought our property just north of Monkey River Village. We engaged the services of Sam Scott to be our building contractor, which viewed from the post-earthquake perspective, was a brilliant decision. The May 28th earthquake did some real damage to Monkey River Village and to Placencia. Most of the damage in Monkey River Village was due to ground liquification, which allowed the support posts of many houses to sink into the ground up to 8 feet. Some support posts subsided in their entirety, leaving the houses resting flat on the ground. Concrete buildings in Monkey River Village and Placencia also suffered damage with cracks and deep fissures forming. It seems that wooden structures may have fared a little better than concrete because they can flex, give, and skew with the earth’s movements without cracking apart.

So how did the Englishtown buildings fare in the earthquake? Quite well, as it turns out. None of our buildings have structural damage! Perhaps it was all the luck of the draw, but I think we, along with Sue and Chris Harris, have Sam Scott to thank for his 3 dimensional “matrix” support system that kept our buildings from subsiding. The picture below shows how our cabana is supported 12 feet above the ground on the system Sam designed. You can see the cubic spaces defined by the vertical and horizontal concrete supports. The 20 vertical supports are spaced approximately 10 feet on center. What you can’t see is that vertical supports continue into the ground for about 3 feet and have horizontal supports connecting them, also at 3 feet below the surface. This design distributes the weight of the house out over the buried horizontal supports. The weight winds up being distributed over a total of 310 sq feet instead of just 20 sq feet if the horizontal supports were omitted from the design. This means that if a portion of the ground under the cabana becomes liquefied, the remainder of the structure can still support the cabana without anything subsiding. The matrix structure also permits the sand and any liquefied soil to move around and between the supports without producing enough force to crack them. Anyway, that was the theory as Sam explained it to us, and I believe that his theory has been born out. We have 3 buildings with this support and I think Sue and Chris also have at least 3. Now you might think that Englishtown just didn’t have the same sort of shaking that Monkey River Village and Placencia did, but pictures from Sue and Chris’s house showing much of their furniture knocked over indicates that we had a lot of shaking going on in Englishtown too. And both of our docks subsided a foot or more. So all we can say is “Thanks, Sam!”

May Day

May 1, 2009

It has been a very busy 2 weeks since I last posted a blog. Major work deadlines intervened that, believe it or not, are related to the US Government Stimulus Package for research funding. The stimulus package created a number of different ways to apply for research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health, all of which had one thing in common – get the dollars into the economy as quickly as possible. That translated into quick turn around times to get grant proposals written. So imagine all across America, thousands of scientists hunkering down at their computers to write a grant proposal in a couple weeks instead of the usual several months in hopes that theirs will be one of the 200 funded. No fun at all, but wish me luck! You know what they say about lotteries– “you can't win if you don't play.”

Last time I was writing about our 2004 trip to Belize where we started out at Gales Point in the Southern Lagoon. From there we headed to Black Rock Lodge in Cayo.

We were picked up at Gales Point by a driver from Black Rock Lodge who drove us along the Manatee Highway to the Hummingbird Highway to Belmopan. At Belmopan we turned onto the Western Highway to get to San Ignacio. The drive was beautiful, and all along the Hummingbird Highway wave after wave of the wonderful smell of orange blossoms filled the van. The road to the lodge was nearly impassable by my gringa standards. In places it was no more than deep washed out tracks that threatened to rip off the undercarriage of the van. But the driver persevered and delivered us to the lodge with no damage to us or the van. The lodge was lovely. Luxurious landscaping screened the cabanas so each one felt like the only one. The outdoor covered dining room/lobby overlooked the gorge through which the Macal River runs. Dinner was family style each night, and it was always delicious. They also had a well-stocked bar where I had my very first Caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil. A Caipirinha is made with cachaça, a distilled liquor made from a by product of sugar cane processing, poured over crushed ice on top of lime slices muddled with raw sugar. They could also make a mean mohito. Birdwatching at the lodge was great. We saw our first lineated woodpeckers there starting a nest near our cabana.

We met another couple there, Sikke and Neeltje Sikkema who were visiting from France, also watching birds. The four of us went on a canoe day trip on the Macal from Black Rock to San Ignacio. The canoe was an ungainly aluminum 4 seater that weighed a ton and had the maneuverability of a school bus. The trip was great fun even though we had a run in with some aggressive overhanging tree branches when we came out of a small rapids wrong way around. My little point and shoot film camera bit the dust on that one. If you take a look at the slide show you can see water damage on the film of the last photo I took on the canoe trip. :-( We passed by herds of long horned cattle wading in the water. They disdainfully ignored us for the most part. A cow is pretty big when seen from the perspective of a canoe seat. We stopped for lunch at a posh lodge on the river and took a tour through some lovely ornamental gardens there. From there it was easy going to San Ignacio. One of the nice things about Belize is how easy it is to find kindred spirits. We have kept in touch (sporadically, I must admit) with Sikke and Neeltje and they were kind enough to host us for a several absolutely delightful days when I had a business trip to France a couple of years ago. We hope they get a chance to visit us in Minnesota before we move to Belize! And especially after we do move to Belize.

On the way to Black Rock and the way out, we passed by some properties for sale. Most of these were ranch sized with gorgeous houses and prices to match. The driver from Black Rock also drove us to Calico Jack’s at the north end of the Placencia Peninsula.

Here comes the really cool part …

We checked into Calico Jack’s and the manager (who was checking us in) asked us if we had been to the Monkey House a while back. Our mouths dropped open as we wondered how she knew. It turns out that our names had rung a bell (how many Wilmas do you know?). As you have probably figured out by now the manager was none other than Martha Scott from the Monkey House. She had been away when we were there in 1999, so we had never met. But she remembered us from the photos I had sent them of Sam and of us. So we finally got to meet Martha and she got us caught up on what happened to Sam and the Monkey House during Hurricane Iris while she was still in the states. The hurricane washed most of Monkey House away and almost washed Sam away. Sam saved himself by hanging on to a filled water vat as the storm raged around him. The storm surge at Monkey House was 16 ft. What a trauma! So with Monkey House “gone with the waves”, Martha was making ends meet working at Calico Jack’s while Sam was working on reconstructing the remains of the workshop into a liveable structure. He did a fine job of it, too. You should see it now with the workshop area converted into downstairs living space and kitchen, the dining room and sitting room overlooking the ocean, and upstairs a large bedroom, laundry room, and bathroom. The wall on the ocean side is a huge series of gorgeous mahogany louvered windows.

Talking to Martha was like talking to a long lost friend, we settled into a comfortable conversation like settling into our favorite spots on the sofa. And of course, sooner or later it came out that we were looking for property to buy. Martha made some phone calls to Monkey River Village and arranged for Ralph Zuniga, an excellent tour guide, to show us property owned by Sonny Garbutt. Long story short, we wound up buying 2 blocks from Sonny in Englishtown. It took a year to get it all settled, most of which was long distance communication with our lawyer in Belize. Another cool aspect of this is that the 2 blocks we bought from Sonny had originally been deeded to his ancestors by Queen Victoria.

Sonny had 6 blocks for sale. Now these blocks had seen quite a bit of damage from Hurricane Iris and were filled with downed trees and regrown jungle. The land here is fairly low, so we needed to check out which lots had the best features. At this point Dennis was about 17 days post knee surgery, so I volunteered to check out the literal lay of the land. The jungle had grown up so densely that I had to weave my way in three dimensions almost like a snake to get back into the lots. I was looking for standing water (bad) and hardwood trees like gumbo limbo (good). The southernmost lot were the lowest, but the 4 other lots were all pretty good. We selected what we thought were blocks 5 and 6 when counting from the southernmost lot. The approximate center of the blocks we selected could be identified from the sea by a tall tree covered with Devil’s Guts epiphytic cactus. There were various mis-communications, mis-measurements, mis-adventure, that ultimately resulted in us actually purchasing blocks 4 and 5. This was the best thing that could have happened for us. It turns out there is a legal battle over block 6. I am so glad that we did not wind up in the middle of that. So here’s to mis-communication, mis-measurements, and mis-adventure! May they live long so we can prosper!

Stay tuned for the next post when we start planning what to do on the lots. Until then enjoy May Day weekend.

Recalling Manatee Lodge at Gale's Point, 2004

The next morning at breakfast, we asked Nicole and the manager (sorry, I can’t remember her name at the moment) if they knew the person who had property for sale on the Northern Lagoon. We had found an ad on our internet search for 40 acres. They didn’t know the owner, but we were able to call him and arrange for a young local man familiar with the area to take us to see it. In the meantime, we made plans for a trip out to the cayes to snorkel and got our bearings for Gale’s Point. Gale’s Point has some international fame for its Garifuna drumming school. We walked south on the narrow road; in places the lagoon water was only feet away from either side of the road. We passed the drumming school and Gentle’s Cool Spot. We stopped in for coffee at Nicole’s friend’s place. This tiny enterprise, only ~10x15 feet, was also a dressmaker’s place and a tattoo parlor.

The weather was atrocious the entire time we were there, but we made the best of it. We made the attempt to get to the cayes. What a mistake! The first part was fine even though it was little drizzly as we made our way north across the Southern Lagoon to the Bar River. At the mouth of the Bar River is a protected area for sea turtle nesting and turtle count activities. But the force of the wind and the waves raised by the wind hit us when we got to open sea. We optimistically hoped the weather would clear and continued going. This was our first encounter with a Norther, and this one didn’t quit for a good week. We endured almost an hour of spine-breaking, air-born travel over high waves before we called it quits and headed back. Of course that meant another hour of return travel. Makes my butt hurt just to recall the pounding that we endured.

The next day, we set out with George to see the property on the Northern Lagoon. Again, the day was wet, but the wind was not as bad and the air was warm. It was an enjoyable trip. Very little of the shore of the Southern or Northern Lagoons was inhabited; the few structures that were present were primitive fish shacks nailed together from miscellaneous assortments of wood. We did see a fine dock and house/office that George thought was the beginnings of a development at the southern shore of the Northern Lagoon. We got to the property, which was very lovely. There was a dry weather “track” to the property from a dirt road which led to another dirt road and then a paved road. All-in-all not very accessible by land and several hours of serious travel away from supplies. Gorgeous, but not very practical. We did see jaguar prints (see slide show) and a couple of snakes that I wouldn’t let George kill. It would be a terrific location for a jungle lodge, provided you had enough money to put in a road. We just weren’t ready for that kind of undertaking. After exploring the area, we headed back to Manatee Lodge.

One reason we had chosen to stay at Manatee Lodge was its proximity to an underwater spring of warm water that attracts manatees. We took the canoe out a couple of times and saw quite a few manatees. We also explored the bit of land that separates the Southern Lagoon from the ocean and found a couple of abandoned houses and garden plants gone feral. What we didn’t see was other people, and that suited us. There was very little boat activity on either lagoon; maybe because the weather was not fine. We paid a visit to Gentle’s Cool Spot early one evening with some of the other guests from Manatee Lodge. Mr. Gentle makes wine from cashews, blackberry, and other fruits. Mixed with sprite, they were not bad. It was a real treat to sit on the veranda at Mr. Gentle’s Cool Spot (as I learned “cool spot” is another name for a place that serves alcohol). It was actually his home, as are most of the places of business along Gale’s Point. Manatee Lodge has a very nice library, which was another place we spent rainy days.

From Gale’s Point we went to Black Rock Lodge near San Ignacio. But that will be in the next blog.

Spring is here in southern Minnesota!

This week has brought us our first sustained real spring weather. The daffodils are beginning to bloom, bluebirds are picking out nest boxes, robins are pulling worms from ground covered with green grass. The trees are still bare, but flower buds on the maple and sarvice berry trees in our yard are swelling and will break forth at any moment.

Earlier this week I was out in the front yard with our two cats, JD and Max, checking out the status of the daffodils, etc. when I heard another cat meowing. I looked over to see a young, scrawny cat tentatively emerge out from under the mugo pine. I quickly picked her up so our cats wouldn’t chase her off. Poor kitty was skin and bones, in fact some places didn’t even have skin. It looks as though she was thrown or leapt from a moving car and is recovering from serious road rash on her left flank. Of course I took her in and gave her water and food. Over the course of the next 4 hours she ate 2 large cans of cat food and wanted more. Her road rash seems to be healing quite well, but it covers an area about 3 inches by 3 inches with a square inch in the center still scabbed over. From the looks of it, I estimate it happened as long as 3 weeks ago. We are keeping her in the sunroom while we check with the neighbors to see if any of them are missing a cat. I hope we don’t find them because I want to keep her. JD and Max aren’t too happy to have another cat in the house, but they are behaving pretty well. She is very affectionate and is sitting in my lap purring as I write this.

In last weekend’s blog I started telling the story of how we wound up in Belize. After our first 2 trips to Belize in 1998 and 1999, during the next 4 years we had winter vacations in Puerto Rico (including a side trip to Vieques), Bahamas, Baja Mexico, Tortola British Virgin Islands, and Kona Hawaii. We had previously been to St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John in the US Virgin Islands, Maui Hawaii, Culebra Puerto Rico. It seems that with each warm place we went to, each of us was, independently and without the other knowing it, scoring the location as a possible place to live. We finally realized that both of us were thinking this way, possibly in reaction to moving from Georgia to Minnesota in 1993. ;-) Our highest ranking places were Culebra Puerto Rico and Belize. Neither of us likes crowds or has a need for poshness. Not to say that we don’t like our comforts or are antisocial, but we do like a simple life. Belize won out for a number of reasons, cost of living being a major factor.

So it was that in February of 2004 we set off to Belize, checkbooks in hand just in case, to look for property. We started our vacation at Gale’s Point. Gale’s Point is a low, narrow, finger of land that juts straight out into the Southern Lagoon from the south shore. We flew into the Phillip Goldson International Airport, took a taxi to the dock at the Save-U store in Belize City. We were met at the dock by John Moore who boated us to Gale’s Point Manatee Lodge. The journey was wonderful. We started on the Belize River, then a canal to the Sibun River. The Sibun River took us to the Northern Lagoon. All along the way we watched birds in the tropical jungle plants along the water’s edge. Once in the Northern Lagoon we made a brief detour to Bird Caye. It lived up to its name. We couldn’t stay long because evening was approaching and we still needed to navigate through the maze of waterways connecting the Northern and Southern Lagoons. The sun was setting behind the mountains as we arrived at the Manatee Lodge dock. We checked in to the lodge, put our things away, and went down to a quiet dinner before bed.

To be continued …

New slide show

As promised, I have scanned in my old film-based photos of our second trip to Belize in 1999. You can view them with their captions by clicking on the photos that show to the right of this blog. Enjoy!

An Easter Retrospection

Here in Rochester, Easter Sunday is a lovely, sunny, warm day. As Dennis and I drove to the gym a little after noon, we saw a couple of children dressed in their Easter finery and riding their apparently brand new tricycles and scooters and other children at the playground. This has been the first weekend that has really been warm enough (mid 50s) to bring people out to simply enjoy the weather.

Although we haven’t been there to see it, Easter in Monkey River Village is quite a celebration. Monkey River Village today is much smaller than it was in its heyday. Many people and families left the village after the banana industry temporarily collapsed. But over Easter, several hundred people make their way back to Monkey River Village to remember family and family history. My thoughts of Monkey River Village bring me back to our second trip to Belize.

Thinking back … In 1999 we made our second trip to Belize. We had enjoyed Singing Sands on the Placencia Peninsula so much the first time, that we decided to end our trip at Singing Sands this time to be sure that we could just chill out for a couple of days before returning to the frozen north. The first leg of the trip had us flying in to the Placencia Airstrip where Buck, from the Monkey House, picked us up in the boat alongside the runway. As dusk approached we wound our way through the mangroves toward the Monkey River. Monkey House was a little resort just to the north of Monkey River owned and run by Sam and Martha Scott. We didn’t get to meet Martha on this trip because she was in the states taking care of some business. (We did meet her on our next trip, but that is a truly cosmic story for later.) So Sam took over Martha’s role and played host to us. He did Martha proud, making sure we had a fine lobster dinner on the last day of lobster season, keeping us entertained with stories of how they had built The Monkey House, and helping us decide which outings we would enjoy the most. We settled on going to the Sapodilla Cayes for snorkeling and a picnic lunch. The snorkeling was fantastic, possibly better than it will ever be again. The Monkey House had 2 (or was it 3?) beautifully constructed beachside cabanas. The windows were fitted with gorgeous hand-polished mahogany louvers that Sam and Martha made. Inside the cabanas, Sam had set off the floors using braided rope instead of quarter round where the floor meets the wall. There were many other creative touches in the cabanas and dining room of The Monkey House; we could tell that Sam took great pride in what he and Martha had built. We left The Monkey House knowing that we had a new friend in Sam, regretting that we had missed Martha, and planning to stay there again on our next trip. I took a fateful, life-changing, photo of Sam waving to us from The Monkey House dock as Buck boated us down to Punta Gorda and our next leg of our trip. (The story of the fateful photo will be the topic of next week’s blog.)

In Punta Gorda, we were met by Agrapeta from Fallen Stones Resort and Butterfly Ranch (http://www.worldaware.org.uk/awards/awards1995/fallen.html) near San Pedro Columbia in the mountains next to the Lubantum ruins. We bounced along a very rough road into the mountains, past Lubantun, and further up the mountain toward Fallen Stones. Ray Harberd, the owner, showed us to our hillside chalet. Along the way he pointed out the dining room where our dinner would be served later that evening. Fallen Stones is in the heart of the jungle and the chalets are position so that each one looks into the tree tops of unspoiled jungle. The sounds of the birds came from all directions. It was amazing. Dinner that night was served with linen tablecloth and napkins, silver flatware, and fine china by young Maya women. I can’t remember the details of the dinner, only that it started with a soup course and everything was delicious.

The next day we had a tour, led by Ray, of the butterfly rearing enterprise. It was most impressive to see, but even more impressive to listen to what had been accomplished. Each species of butterfly requires specific plants to feed on as adults and different specific plants as caterpillars. By trial and error, he and his Mayan crew had figured that out for a number of the indigenous butterflies. The mainstay and money maker of the business is to raise blue morpho butterflies to the chrysalis stage and then ship them, mostly to the UK, where they will emerge as the stunningly gorgeous adult for garden shows, weddings, etc. We also had a tour of the Lubantun ruins. These ruins have been partially restored, but parts will never be able to be restored because the original archeologists blew them up in their haste to find the "secrets" of the interiors of the Mayan pyramids. The secret is that there is no secret! The neat thing about these ruins is how many of the stones were dressed (carved) to make them fit with great precision. Lubantun is the only example of this in Belize.

Before we came to Belize, we had arranged a 3 mile jungle hike with Agrapeta as our guide. He was fantastic; we saw hummingbird nests, learned which vines held water that could be drunk if you ran out of water in your bottle or canteen and which vines were better not to even touch, and saw more birds than I can remember. The highlight of the hike was to come to “the Eye of God” where the Columbia River roils out of the ground, spilling into a pool out of which the river poured. We had our picnic lunch next to the pool and I took a quick dip before we continued our hike. Downstream from the Eye of God, the river has carved out a small gorge. We looked over into the gorge to see Agrapeta’s son balancing in the family’s dugout floating on water that was a mystical milky-translucent turquoise color. I have never seen anything quite so beautiful. I have pictures from that day showing the color of the water and the incredible beauty of the surrounding jungle. These were taken with film in my pre-digital days, so I will scan them in and add them as a slide show sometime next week. From there we went by dugout to the bridge over the Columbia River at San Pedro. As we neared San Pedro we saw little garden patches of maize and other crops along the shore and women washing themselves, their hair, and clothes while standing waist-deep in the gently flowing water. I put my camera away at this point so as not to intrude further into their privacy. We got out at the bridge and drove back to Fallen Stones. But first we watched as Agrapeta and his son carefully put the dugout away inverted on a wooden rack under a shelter of palm leaves. This dugout has been used by at least 4 generations of Agrapeta’s family; with the care they give it, it should last for several more generations!

Agrapeta drove us to the Punta Gorda airstrip and we flew to the Placencia airstrip again for the last leg of our trip. We were met at the airstrip by Singing Sands staff. The place had changed hands since our last visit, but it was just as lovely and relaxing as it had been. Once more we were able to stay in a beach front cabana. We did a little ocean kayaking and also kayaked in the lagoon. Singing Sands is located near the village of Maya Beach at a very narrow part of the Placencia Peninsula. Singing Sands also owns the property across the road that is on the lagoon. If you are brave (or foolish?) enough to face the mosquitoes in the brush, you can claim a lagoon kayak trip as your reward. It is very peaceful on the lagoon with lots of opportunity to hear and see birds that aren’t on the ocean side.

When we left Belize after several days at Singing Sands, we didn’t know that we would not be back to Belize for four and half years. Check in to next week’s blog to see what happens when we return to Belize after visiting a number of other Caribbean countries.

Belize Blogging from Afar

Sunday, March 29, 2009
We reached Rochester at 12:45 PM Wednesday, March 25th; and both of us were back at work 45 minutes later. That was a rough transition! The good news is that our cats, including the 17 year geriatric JD, were both fine. The bad news is that, well, we are back. :-(

I posted a new set of photos in a slide show and added more images to the previous one. One is a Google Earth image that shows Englishtown and Monkey River Village to give you a better idea of how remote Englishtown is.

We came to a Minnesota just emerging from winter. The snow is gone, but the grass was still brown when we landed. The temps have dipped into the 20s at night, but the sun has been shining brightly and the grass is starting to turn green. Daffodil leaf tips are just poking up out of the ground in our yard and we have heard robins singing. It is a far cry from the seaside jungle we left behind; however we are looking forward to the incredible Minnesota summer just around the corner.

Day prior to departure

Monday, March 23, 2009
Today is that sad day that comes to each trip we make down here – packing up the cabana until next time. At 10:30 tomorrow morning Jason will take us by boat to the Placencia airstrip for our first leg of the long trip back to Minnesota. So today has us sorting our belongings into various piles: 1) things that go back with us, 2) things to give to Richard and Joy, 3) things to give to Sue and Chris, 4) things that get cleaned and locked away, and 5) things that get cleaned and put away ready for the occasional overflow guests from SteppingStones Resort to stay here. Pile #1 is warmish clothes and some few toiletries to get us back to Minnesota. It is the smallest pile. Pile #2 is a breadkeeper, unused cheese, butter, and veggies and vegetable and fruit seeds in starter pots, and some larger pots for bigger plants. To Sue and Chris go decaf espresso and other food items. Towels, linens, pillows, most kitchenware and tableware is in pile #5. And the pile that is to be locked away has our Belize clothes and snorkel gear, some kitchen things I am especially fond of and don’t want to have walk away, and some tools and electrical things that Dennis is fond of.

We also had some time for a couple of fun things today. Chris stopped by this morning and ate breakfast with us. Then later in the morning Richard took me, Dennis, Joy, and Allen in the boat up Black Creek to see where the path Allen cleared through the marsh hit Black Creek. We will site a “rough weather” dock back there for the boat when the sea is too high or rough for the regular dock. You can walk back there now, but the footing is treacherous, and come the wet, the path will be underwater. We want to put in a boardwalk that will allow us to use a wheelbarrow to take stuff back and forth to the boat during any season. I’ve posted a new album that includes photos of Black Creek and a couple of other things in the top right of this blog.

What were our accomplishments this trip? We never get as much done as we would like, but this time Dennis and I did tile and grout the kitchen walls (see photos). I am delighted with the way it turned out. That took us about twice as long as we thought it would. When we return in September or October, we will paint the kitchen walls above the tile a nice creamy yellow. Dennis and Richard installed a pressure tank for our water system. It helps give us a steady supply of water for the cabana and the cottage. Dennis changed out most (maybe all?) the screws holding the windows in place to stainless steel screws and he put in a door stop to keep the front door from banging into the window louvers. We also got a gray water system in place for the kitchen drain water to use to water the ornamentals. And an old water vat drained and moved and a new water vat installed. Richard fixed a new composting box for us. We add washed up sea grass mixed with the mature compost to add some texture to our soil, which is mostly sand. We didn’t make any progress on putting together a solar water heater or in getting a locking cupboard built. There’s always next time!

Monday Breakfast Frittata

Monday, March 23, 2009

Monday Breakfast Frittata

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 T olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
¼ scotch bonnet pepper
1 ¾ c calyloo leaves, shredded
1/3 c diced fresh or dried mushrooms (rehydrated)
¼ c diced sundried tomatoes
1 sm cooked white potato, cubed
1/3 c sharp white cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes
1 roma-style tomato, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Finely dice the onion, garlic, and scotch bonnet pepper and gently sauté in olive oil.
Stir calyloo leaves into salted boiling water; remove from heat, and let sit for 5 or more minutes before draining.
Stir everything except the sliced tomato and cubed cheese into the beaten eggs.
Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Pour the egg mixture into a small oiled or non-stick baking dish (~7x7).
Sprinkle the cheese cubes onto the mixture.
Lay tomato slices onto the top.
Bake at ~300-350 until the sides just start to separate from the pan (~15-20 min).
Cool for 5 minutes.
Slice and serve with fresh fruit, toast, and coffee.
The taste is especially appreciated if eaten while sitting on the veranda overlooking the ocean. :-)

South Englishtown Saturday Night Dinner

Saturday, March 21, 2009

South Englishtown Saturday Night Dinner –

1st course – salad (served with gin and tonic*)
Fresh romaine lettuce (purchased at the Belmopan open air market)
Little grape-style tomatoes (grown in S. Englishtown by Joy)
2 Fresh tomatoes (from Belmopan)
Tomato and basil feta cheese (purchased at Brodie’s in Belize City)
Fresh basil (from Sue’s garden)
Salad dressing – olive oil and vinegar with 2 cloves crushed garlic, fresh ground pepper, salt

2nd course – linguine* with Englishtown Fra Diavilo (served with “Arrival Duty Free” Brissonette White wine @ $6.00/btl)
1 onion, diced (local)
6 cloves garlic, pressed (imported from China)
1 cho-cho, diced (local)
¼ local scotch bonnet pepper, finely diced (more if the pepper is mild)
Sautéed over hot flame for ~15 minutes in 2 T olive oil
Add ½ bell pepper, diced (local)
3 Roma style tomatoes, diced (Belmopan)
1 four oz squeeze tube tomato paste (Naturas brand)
salt and fresh ground pepper* to taste
¾ c water
Simmer for 30 min

3rd course – papaya and banana with sugar-free lemon pudding glaze

4th course – Dove milk chocolate with roasted hazelnut, served with Englishtown Café Dulce Mokatika
1 part sweetened condensed milk (cold)
2 parts decaf espresso (cold, brewed earlier in the day)
2 parts regular milk (cold)
3 parts Mokatika liquor (from Brodie’s)
2-3 Ice cubes (if you’ve got ‘em)

Notes:
1) Diet tonic water is not available in Belize, and often regular tonic water is not available either. Gin and tonic can be approximated by using club soda with a lemon concentrate in the place of tonic. Never, never substitute bad gin for good! Tanqueray Rangpur or Bombay Sapphire are the best gins to use; Beefeaters will do in a pinch. We are still working on how to get the right bitter taste to substitute for the quinine in tonic. Suggestions are welcome!
2) There is no substitute (that I am aware of) for freshly ground black pepper. We bring McCormick brand pepper grinders with us when we come. I have not seen them in stores here, but really haven’t looked for them yet in Belize.
3) For those who need to pay attention to the glycemic index of foods for health reasons, whole wheat pasta can be used for the main course and sugar-free lemon pudding for the 3rd course. Splenda can be added to evaporated milk instead of using sweetened condensed milk, etc.The Duty Free Arrival store at the Phillip Goldston International Airport is fantastic. Any non-Belizean entering the country can shop there upon arrival on an international flight. The best buys are for alcohol. We got a very decent French champagne for $7.00 US and a good Spanish red wine (Brissonette) for $6.00. The Brissonette white wine was not as good, but did fine if overpowered with Feta cheese. ;-) Also, the Napoleon Brandy at $6.00/btl was a great buy. Each person can purchase up to 4 bottles. The costs for alcohol once inside Belize are outrageously high, the choices are limited, and the local alcohols (aside from the Belikin beers, which are quite nicely drinkable) are only so-so.

The "Norther" Arrives

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Dennis, Joy, Richard, and Sue went shopping in Independence yesterday. I stayed back at the cabana and did some work for my paying job back in Minnesota. I needed peace and quiet for a couple of hours to concentrate on what I needed to do and that was the perfect time. Chris was up at SteppingStones working on landscaping, Allen was here in S. Englishtown clearing a path into the jungle. It was very quiet on the veranda and perfect for working. I only stopped twice to stretch my legs and photograph some flowers in our south lot.

The shopping crew went by boat to the Monkey River dock and then Sue drove everyone to Independence. Dennis and Richard had banking to do and then along with Joy shopped at the various little stores and markets. Dennis bought the produce, ultrapasturized milk, breakfast cereal and other items on the list and he also found some tamarind fruit pods that he knows I love. Sue had a major shopping excursion because she is stocking up for a series of guests coming to SteppingStones Fishing Resort. They got back to Englishtown around 1:00, tired and sweaty from the long morning.

This morning we woke before 6:00 and the sea was glassy calm, no hint of breeze in the air. I love the way the sea looks when conditions are like this, so I took a number of photographs as the sun was rising. I tried to capture the subtle colors and calm feeling, as if nature were holding her breath. That turned out to be more prophetic than I had anticipated; 2 hours later a strong gale blew up with no warning – the “Norther” that Richard had said was coming is upon us. Check the 6:00 AM compared to the 8:00 AM photos in the web album that shows up at the upper right of this blog page. I also added some photographs of flowers, a female grackle, the change out of the water vats, and the Spanish Ray.

Trip to Belize City and More

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Yesterday, we finished our shopping in Belize City and were headed to Belmopan, the capitol, by 12:30. Dennis tried to pay our land tax, but for some reason they could not find our records, even though we have paid taxes for the last 4 years with no problem. We have copies of the deed and our previous tax receipts, but did not have them with us. So, like many things in Belize, that will get done another day. We did our produce shopping at the open air market and continued the drive back to Monkey River.

Those of you familiar with the Monkey River area will know that the dirt road to Monkey River ends at the north side of the mouth of the river and Monkey River Village is across the river at the south side of the mouth. There are no roads from any direction that go all the way to Monkey River Village. The folks in the village who own vehicles leave them in the lot near the dock on the north side and make their way back and forth across the river by boat. Englishtown is on the north side of the river, but there is no road to Englishtown either. Englishtown is topologically an island, essentially separated from the mainland by Black Creek to the south and west and to the north and west by mangrove marshland and by the shrimp farm creek.

What this means to those of us in Englishtown is that instead of just having to cross the river like the folks in Monkey River Village, we have to exit the mouth of the river into the sea and head north, passing to the inside of Little Monkey Cay to reach the stretch of beach that is Englishtown. It only takes about 15 minutes, but sometimes the sea is rough and the wind is high, making it difficult and sometimes dangerous to dock the boat, unload everything, and disembark. Other times, the sea is as smooth as glass and life is easy. Yesterday was between the extremes. Regardless, it makes for a long day of travel from Belize City to Englishtown.

One of the things we really enjoyed in Belize City was our dinner at a Chinese restaurant named, of all things, the Pirate. It is on the Northern highway a mile or so south of the big new Brodie’s store. The Pirate has a wonderful atmosphere that combines the best of outdoor dining with bug-free indoor dining. Between the 4 of us, we had pot stickers, steamed fresh vegetables, shrimp with fermented black beans, green curry chicken, sweet and sour shrimp, and African grilled fish. I highly recommend all of the above. The servings were very generous; we should have ordered less.

Today was hot and fairly calm. After a day of cleaning the cabana, washing clothes, squeezing oranges for juice, and fixing veggies to marinate prior to roasting later on for dinner, I decided it was time for a swim. The water was nice and clear and the sun was HOT. I swam from our dock to the halfway point to Chris and Sue’s dock and back. The importance of the clear water when swimming this close to shore is that you can see the stingrays before you make contact with them. To the surprise of both of us, I came face to face with a smallish (~1.5 ft wingspan) stingray. We slowly backed away from each other and then continued on our swims with courses altered to avoid contact. I have no personal experience with a sting from a stingray, but those who do have such experience (Chris and Sam, our building contractor) assure me that it is so painful that you would do just about anything to get rid of the pain.

Richard has made conch ceviche as an appetizer for our dinner together tonight. He has a bad reaction to conch when he eats it, but still makes a mean ceviche that Joy, Dennis, and I enjoy. I am fixing the veggies (onion, sweet potatoes, pattie pan squash, zucchini, broccoli, and carrots marinated in olive oil seasoned with salt, freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic slices, and fresh ginger slivers, and I couldn’t resist adding a tablespoon of fresh orange juice), Dennis will fry up some nice snook fillets, and Joy made a couple of loaves of whole wheat bread. We don’t eat together every night, but do try to have a couple of special meals together each time we are down here.

Thursday, March 19, 2009
We were awakened this morning before dawn by the far away roar of howler monkeys coming from across the marsh and Black Creek. They have undoubtedly been roaring every morning, but we usually can’t hear them over the sound of the waves and the wind in the trees. During the night, however, the breeze dropped off and the waves became almost nonexistent. So, we hear the monkeys and the then grackles and the parrots and woodpeckers and doves and mockingbirds and social flycatchers and who knows what else as the jungle behind our cabana starts the new day. Spark and I went for a little pre-breakfast stroll out onto the dock and then along the shore for a bit. The water is clear, but there aren’t many fish hanging around under the dock like there will be later today; only a school of little minnows spooked by my shadow.

Today Dennis and Richard have the chore of pumping water from one vat to our new vat. Then the empty vat can be moved into line with the others. This shifting of water from one vat to another and repositioning the first is all so that Richard will be able to finish the cane screen under the front of the cabana that had been interrupted by the vat sticking out from under the cabana too far. We now have seven 1000 gallon storage vats under our cabana and two next to the generator shed; you can never have too many vats. :-) During the rainy season the vats get filled with water that is collected off the rooftops. That is our only supply of fresh water for drinking, bathing, cleaning, even watering the garden during the dry season. The rainwater is nice and soft, lovely for washing clothes and hair. You do have to keep the filters cleaned and remove the occasional dead frog or two out of a vat. :-(

Mid-morning as Richard was preparing to take Joy to the village, he called me to come to the dock and bring my camera. He had spotted a little ray locally known as a Spanish Ray. It was quite small; only about 6 inches across and 8 inches long with a stubby 8 inch tail. I think this is as big as this particular kind of ray gets, unlike the stingrays that can reach a couple of feet across with very long whip-like tails. But both of these rays have barbed tails that have a fearsome venom. It is easy to overlook either of them as they settle down into the sand with only their eyes sticking out. And easy to step on them and get stung. I’ll post one of the photos of the Spanish Ray the next time I load up a new album on the blog.

After a bright, hot, and still morning, a light breeze is coming from the south and a thin layer of clouds is to our west. It feels cooler and the air is less close. Richard says this is what heralds the coming of a “norther”, a windy cold front that brings cooler air and often rain from the north. Once that passes, we should have fine, clear weather.

Tomorrow (Friday) is the day for shopping in Independence. Independence is the closest village that has fulltime electrical service and so is the closest place to shop for perishables. It also has the nearest hardware store. We can get to Independence 2 ways. The easiest, but most expensive, is by boat. But, if you go by boat you then have to walk from the dock into the village and carry all your purchases back to the boat. The other way, and the way most often used, is to go by boat to the Monkey River Village parking lot and then drive to Independence. It takes longer and the road is often miserable with potholes, but it is the best way when you have a lot of purchases to make, especially at the hardware store. The hardware store, MNM, is the distributor for Belikin and Coca Cola and sells gas and diesel; all of those wondrous liquids that keep us going …

In Belize City

This is just a short blog today. Dennis and I are in Belize City with Chris and Sue to do some shopping and take care of some business. We accomplished quite a bit yesterday and have more on our list for today. We spent the night at D'Nest Inn, a lovely B&B with a fantastic garden. Our only complaint is the sound of dogs barking throughout the night.

I finally got the new slide show to load properly, so take a look at it by double clicking on the photos that show up at the top right of this blog page just below the banner photo. If you choose the "slideshow" option for viewing, the captions show up with each photo.

We are off for our breakfast in the dining room off the garden and then on to the scavanger hunt that is the shopping experience in Belize.

working on the cabana

Preface --The entries below were written as they are dated and posted all together when I got internet access. The photos I refer to show up just to the right of this posting at the top of the page. If you double click on any image, the entire album will open. You can play it as a slide show and see the captions.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 -- We just did make it out of Minnesota yesterday. Our original flight from Rochester to Chicago was canceled due to fog. But American rebooked us on the next flight and also on the flight from Chicago to Miami. We got to Miami only a couple of hours later than we had planned. From the airport weather report we saw earlier today, it looks like Chicago and Minneapolis airports are pretty much shut down for at least this morning. Our flight this morning left Miami for Belize right on time, 10:50. I’m writing this on the plane while looking down at the Florida Keys passing below us. When we checked in at the Rochester airport (my favorite small airport in the whole world, but that is a sidebar for another time) we had 5 bags to check, each of which weighed between 45 and 48 pounds (good job, Dennis!). Unfortunately they were not able to check them through all the way to Belize since we had an overnight stop in Miami. We were not looking forward to having to schlep those 5 heavy bags along with our 4 carryon bags from the Miami airport to the hotel and back again. Fortunately, there is a conveniently located luggage storage place at the airport. We paid $45 to store the bags, and then just schlepped the bags 50 feet to the check in counter this morning.
Chris had asked us to pick a cheap watch for him, no leather or metal for the strap. Starting at gate D29, where the security line enters the concourse, we walked along past 2 or 3 shops that had watches, but they were all fake bling, not Belize worthy in the least. Finally, all the way past gate 50D at the end wall of the concourse was the perfect store, the $10 Store. They had $10 watches with jelly-type bands. I found a masculine looking black and red number for Chris and just happened to buy a petite turquoise one for myself, too. ;-) And because we just didn’t have quite enough stuff with us, we stopped at the dutyfree store to pick up a bottle of Schtolliznia (for Chris again) and Tanqueray Rangpur (for me).
I recently got a new cell phone, the Blackberry Bold with service through AT&T. I got it mostly for work, because I can directly access my work email program and get my emails via the 3G coverage. That turns out to be much faster than logging into my laptop and finding wireless at airports or hotels or anywhere, for that matter. It has a nice sized qwerty keyboard that works well for typing with middle-aged thumbs. I got international coverage and am told it will work in Belize for phone calls and for data, including email. I’m not 100% convinced that it will work, but we’ll see. If it does, life will be much easier for us on our twice-a-year trips to Belize. I have my fingers crossed.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 -- I am writing this from the screened in veranda of our cabana. It is 7:40 pm and a gorgeous full moon has risen over the ocean. We have been here not quite 30 hours. I was delighted when we arrived at the Phillip Goldson International Airport to find that my Blackberry does work in Belize – hurray!!! I was able to send an email from it to Sue letting her know that we had arrived on schedule. And I received her surprised reply (not surprised that we had gotten her on schedule, but that I was able to send her an email from the airport.). While we waited to pull our bags off the carousel, we discovered the new duty free shop at the airport. We got 4 bottles of various spirits for $28 US. Fast forward to dinner tonight and we found that the brandy was more firewater in nature than smooth; but for $6 it is hard to complain. Here’s hoping the wines and champagne are a little better.
We were the last people from our flight through customs. Dennis wound up having to pay $187 BZ on import duty, the most we have had to pay yet. Bailey provided excellent help getting all our bags from customs to the Maya Island Air check in counter and Victor made sure that everything got safely on board our flight to Placencia, even personally handing me the bag with booze as I boarded the plane. Remembering people and greeting them by name goes a long way toward making everything happen smoothly, and a nice tip also helps.
Chris, Richard, and Jason, met us at the Placencia Airstrip in Jason’s boat. Words can’t do justice to the experience of being met by boat at that airstrip. From there we boated around to the Placencia dock area and did a little grocery shopping before the 50 min ride to Englishtown. The sea was high and fairly rough, so we docked at Chris and Sue’s -- our dock gets even rougher water than theirs, making it dangerous to offload such large bags. It took a while to offload everything and haul it down the beach to S. Englishtown, but several wheelbarrow loads took care of most of it. Sue prepared a lovely dinner (locally farmed shrimp in red sauce over rice) so we could just relax our first evening. Nothing could be better – good friends, good conversation, good food, good wine to close a busy day of travel to paradise.
One of the most fun things we like to do when we arrive is to walk around the property with Richard (our caretaker) and his wife joy while they show us how the plants have grown and the various improvements to the property that they have made since we were here last. This time we saw how much better the cabana looks since Richard has begun installing a sort of visual screen of dried river cane as a barrier along the perimeter of the cabana between the ground and the floor. Again, photos will show that better than I can describe it.
Today, Dennis and I worked on the layout for the tile we will install on the kitchen walls. We did all the measurements and placements of the decorative tiles and figured out how much tile cutting needs to be done. Part of the $187 of import duty was for a good quality tile cutter, thinset trowels, tile nippers, etc. We will start the installation tomorrow.
Tonight we made a sort of “gourmet” take on tuna casserole using 2 medium onions, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 cho cho (chayote), and part of sweet pepper sautéed together, a can of tuna packed in water, Cracker Barrel sharp cheddar cheese, evaporated milk, and whole wheat penne pasta baked for about 45 minutes. This was our first time to use the oven (it was installed just as we were leaving the last time we were here). It worked just fine once we figured out how to light it. We didn’t even explode anything. ;-)

Friday, March 13, 2009 – We were so busy with the tile yesterday that I was not able to find time to write for the blog. We got off to a very slow and uneven start with the tile. We didn’t have spacers, so the first part is uneven. And a part in the tile cutter had jostled loose, so the tile was breaking unevenly at one end until Dennis figured that out. Good thing we got plenty of extra tiles. Once we got that straightened out, it went a lot quicker. I’m very happy with how most of it looks. We are only about 1/3 done, so we have a lot to do today.

Saturday, March 14, 2009 – the tile work is going much faster. We will finish it tomorrow by doing the areas under the 3 windows that require a lot of cutting. The 3 main walls are all tiled. This morning Richard got someone from Monkey River Village to come help with a water vat delivery and also to do major trimming on the blackberry tree. The blackberry tree, which gets its name from its large, edible, black fruits that are about the size of an olive, is huge and is growing just behind the cabana. It drops fruit into the rain gutter (part of our water collection system) and also onto the back veranda. The fruits are very juicy and stain everything purple. We needed to trim it away from the veranda because it makes such a mess and we also plan to site a solar water heater on that end of the cabana. The tree would have shaded the heater during the late afternoon hours. Tiger came to help Richard with the trimming. He climbed a ladder to get into the tree branches, carrying his machete with him. He used the machete to trim branches up to 6 inches in diameter while balancing on tree branches. He made very short work of the trimming job and now the tree looks better and won’t be a problem for another couple of years. Quite a few little blackberry trees have taken root under the big tree. When the rainy season starts, Joy and Richard will transplant some of those to better locations for big trees.
Tonight we will grill some snook fillets that have been marinating in lime, onion, and sweet pepper. Richard is the grill master. I made some cole slaw and will cook some brown jasmine rice. Joy and Richard will join us for dinner. I think Joy is preparing wild green papayas by pealing and seeding them. Then she will cook them in brown sugar and cinnamon. That will be a great dessert.

Such a long long time to be gone and short time to be there

Four more days until we reach Englishtown; not nearly soon enough, yet way too soon. We have so much to do (at work and home) before we can leave, yet we just really need to be there. So what have we packed up so far? Tools, tools, tools (including jigsaw, chain saw blade sharpener, lots of hand tools), toolboxes, bathroom faucet, stainless steel kitchen towel rods, a big box of teaching materials for St Stephen's Anglican Primary School in Monkey River Village (our neighbor Sue is school manager), unbreakable polycarbonate "outdoor" beverage glasses, black tie and cummerbund (not sure what gala event this for, but Chris, I think Sue has big social plans for you!), DVDs for Joy (she loves horror films). Because all of this will stay there when we return to Minnesota, we are prepared to pay import duties. Most of what we bring in is used, so the values on which the duty is calculated are pretty low. Belize is so small and has so little opportunity to generate income to support infrastructure that we don't begrudge the duties.





Thanks to the Grateful Dead for the lyrics used in the title of today's blog.

Another suitcase (or 8)

We are well into packing for our 12th trip to Belize, even though our departure is not until March 9th. Between all the things we want to bring to our cabana and the items our neighbors, Chris and Sue Harris, have requested, we can easily fill our combined allotment of 4 checked bags and 4 carry on bags. The suitcases get packed to the maximum allowable weight by Dennis, my packing guru spouse. Chris and Sue have a small fishing resort (Steppingstones -- http://www.steppingstonesbelize.com/) just up the beach from us. This pristine, isolated stretch of beach is north of the Monkey River and Black Creek. Not so very long ago, a small community called Englishtown was located there. The only remaining signs of the former Englishtown inhabitants are the occasional mango and cashew trees that have since been swallowed up by jungle. Chris and Sue, fittingly enough since they are Brits, have resurrected the name "Englishtown". Our place anchors the south end of Englishtown. When we arrive the human population will increase from 6 to 8.


Flashback to the year 1998 -- stepping out of the airplane cabin onto the stairs to deplane, we inhaled our first of the warm, humid Belizean air and knew we had found our place. Hard to believe that the Phillip Goldston International Airport could be the setting for such a cosmic revelation, but there you have it. Our first stop was Ambergris Cay by water taxi; we even went so far as to listen to a timeshare spiel (thanks, but no thanks). From there we went flew to Placencia to stay at the Singing Sands resort near Maya Beach. In spite of a painful scorpion encounter (Wilma) and a touch of Montezuma's revenge (Dennis), we were trying to appear oh-so-casual as we eavesdropped at the bar when a realtor for a future (now realized) development was giving the Singing Sands owners the latest news on prices and sales leads. Prices seemed pretty high for lots barely above sea level with only a vague promise of "pipe water" and electricity coming along in the future. The time for a bargain purchase is clearly past when the lot prices are calculated in dollars per oceanfront foot.


Given the changes in airline schedules, it sometimes takes us a little longer to reach our destination these days than it has in the past. Our trip this time has us leaving from Rochester, MN through Chicago and overnighting in Miami on day 1. Day 2 is Miami to Belize City to Placencia airstrip on Maya Island Air and then on to S. Englishtown by private boat. Just as we have been shopping and been the recipients of eBay purchases for the Harrises, they have been shopping for us -- food and provisions, wall tiles for the kitchen, etc. This will be yet another working vacation for us and I can hardly wait.